ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, or plague (3–9)
Treasure none

The voidstick zombie is the hateful creation of wicked shamans and necromancers, who use voidsticks to animate the dead. One voidstick is required for every Hit Die possessed by the base creature. These vile devices, each of which is 6 to 10 inches in length, are pierced through the living or dead body of a creature, pumping the dark energy of the void into its form. Packed with the bitter entropy of negative energy, the creature rises, seeking out the life force of others with endless sadness and insane determination. Its single goal is to extinguish life and smother any source of positive energy. Multiple voidsticks in a creature's form feed one another, augmenting their standard abilities and imbuing the touch of the voidstick zombie with the power to drain life from anything it touches. The zombie becomes almost a sliver of the void itself, existing in a state of such negative power that its very proximity can tamper with other creatures' abilities to summon the powers of the Positive Energy Plane, and with the perpetual sadness that numbs its own intellect it gains the power to enhance and influence other creatures that depend on negative energy.

These sad creatures, wracked with soulless negative energy, constantly hunger for destruction, delighted at every chance they get to snuff the spark of life from the living.

Since the rediscovery of voidsticks, those interested in necromancy and the creation of new undead have sent emissaries eager to buy them. These enterprising necromancers experiment with the devices and unleash voidstick zombies to fulfill their murderous intent.

Voidsticks

In remote parts of the world, it is not always practical for the faithful to visit holy places with any regularity. In particular, the weak, the sick, and the dying may be in no position to trek across plains or risk dangerous water crossings to see their spiritual leaders. In response to this, the godstick was born—a crafted rod that serves as a portable shrine, carried by shamans and witchdoctors and pushed into the ground to focus devotion at any location. Ingenuity is not just the way of the benign, however, and just as often it is the way of evil. Before long, shamans who worshiped more hateful deities corrupted this notion; they created the voidsticks and drove them into bodies, living or dead, charging those bodies with the power of the endless void and creating rattling, hungry abominations.